[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 84 (Monday, June 8, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6241-S6242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           FAMILY SMOKING PREVENTION AND TOBACCO CONTROL ACT

  Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Madam President, I have come to the floor to offer a 
few comments on the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, 
the bill on which we will shortly be voting cloture, I hope.
  I wish to begin by paying tribute and thanking Senator Kennedy. I 
have had occasions to discuss this subject with him more than once. No 
one has been more dedicated, worked harder or longer to see this day on 
the floor than Senator Ted Kennedy. I thank him for it. I hope once 
this bill gains cloture we will pass it swiftly, and it will become the 
law of the land, and it will, in fact, save lives.
  I would like to make three main points. The first is that tobacco is 
the leading preventable cause of death in this country; the second is 
the huge financial cost to tobacco; and finally, the relationship 
between tobacco and cancer.
  We know tobacco harms the health of Americans--those who use 
cigarettes and those who are exposed to secondhand smoke. But I think 
what most people do not know is that every year, 400,000 Americans die 
from tobacco use. That makes tobacco the leading preventable cause of 
death in the United States, killing more people each year than HIV/
AIDS, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle accidents, suicides, 
and murders combined. That is why it is the leading preventable cause 
of death.
  In California, every year 36,600 adults die from their smoking; in 
Michigan, the number is 14,500; in New York, 25,400; in Wyoming, a very 
small State, 700 people die every year. Every State in this country 
loses people prematurely to death from smoking.
  We know the high cost, the human cost of tobacco use, but I think 
people also do not realize my second point, and that is the tremendous 
financial cost. Smoking costs our health care system $96 billion every 
year. States pay $13.3 billion every year in Medicaid expenses and the 
Federal Government spends $17.6 billion. Medicare pays $27.6 billion 
and the VA and other Federal programs spend an additional $9.6 billion. 
The rest of this cost, about $28 billion, is borne by private payers. 
So the financial cost is $96 billion a year.
  The Senate is about to embark on the enormous task of expanding 
health care coverage and access for the 47 million Americans without 
insurance. Imagine that instead of spending $96 billion every year to 
treat tobacco-related illnesses, we could use this money to improve our 
health care system. It could fund a significant portion of health 
reform. One, we could nearly triple the budget of the National 
Institutes of Health, a very good thing. Two, only 2 months of tobacco-
related health spending could provide a year of health insurance for 
every uninsured child in America. Three--let me put it another way--we 
could provide health insurance to every uninsured child in America and 
still have $80 billion left over. That is the inordinate, inexplicable 
cost of tobacco products in this country. Instead, we continue to spend 
$96 billion every year on preventable illness caused by tobacco.
  Passing this bill will not immediately end smoking or the illness it 
causes, but helping Americans to live healthier lives is a critical 
component of any long-term reform of our health care system. I believe 
we should view this bill as a sound, critical, and important first step 
on the road to broader reform.
  Tobacco and cancer. My life has been surrounded by cancer, so I am 
very sensitive on this point. Without a doubt, cancer is one of the 
most expensive tobacco-related illnesses. Cigarette

[[Page S6242]]

smoking alone accounts for approximately 30 percent of cancer deaths 
annually. It is the leading cause of lung cancer, and lung cancer is 
the No. 1 cancer killer in this country.
  Since coming to the Senate, I have tried to be committed to finding 
cures and treatments that will end death and suffering from cancer. My 
goal is in my lifetime. As I tell people, I am not that young anymore, 
so I want to see it come fast and soon. I have had the opportunity to 
talk with countless experts in oncology, biomedical research, and 
medicine about how to meet this goal. They all say one thing: Go after 
tobacco. We will not end cancer until we end tobacco use. This bill 
takes a major step in that direction.
  In 2007, the President's cancer panel called on Congress to authorize 
the FDA to strictly regulate tobacco products and product marketing. 
This same report called the tobacco industry ``a vector of disease and 
death that can no more be ignored in seeking solutions to the tobacco 
problem than mosquitos can be ignored in seeking to eradicate 
malaria.'' I think that is a very good quote. I think it is really 
true.
  Most people associate tobacco use with lung cancer, as I just have. 
But according to the National Cancer Institute, 90 percent of lung 
cancer deaths among men can be attributed to smoking--90 percent--and 
80 percent of these same deaths attributed to women are from smoking as 
well. But there are a variety of other cancers caused by tobacco 
products: cancer of the mouth, of the nasal cavities, of the larynx, of 
the throat, of the esophagus--esophageal cancer is increasing, for some 
strange reason, and I suspect this has to do with it--stomach, liver, 
pancreas, kidney, bladder, cervix, and even acute myeloid leukemia. 
There is so much we do not know about cancer--how it is caused, how it 
progresses, how to treat it effectively. But we know beyond a shadow of 
a doubt that many types are caused at least in part by tobacco use. So 
I firmly believe the passage of this bill will lead to a reduction in 
cancer, and most importantly to cancer deaths, and it will give the FDA 
the ability to make the cigarettes currently available less toxic and 
less carcinogenic and less addicting.

  Let me give an example. A study by researchers--namely, David Burns 
and Christy Anderson, both of the University of California, San Diego 
School of Medicine--suggests that cigarette smoke today may double the 
risk of lung cancer compared to cigarettes smoked by Americans 40 years 
ago. Now, that is amazing.
  Remember all the unfiltered cigarettes of yesteryear? You would think 
those cigarettes would be stronger; right? No, they are saying. They 
attribute this to a change in the chemicals which have been added in 
recent years to cigarettes. The researchers compared cigarettes in the 
United States with cigarettes in Australia, and here is what they 
found: Cigarettes smoked in Australia have a much lower level of a 
compound known as tobacco-specific nitrosamines. This chemical is a 
carcinogen. It causes a type of lung cancer called adenocarcinoma. 
Rates of this lung cancer are much lower in Australia, leading 
researchers to conclude that the contents of cigarettes are exposing 
American smokers to a higher risk.
  This suggests that lung cancer rates could be reduced by regulatory 
control of additives to tobacco products. That is what this bill will 
do. It will give the Food and Drug Administration the ability to make 
the cigarettes smoked in this country less dangerous, less addictive. 
They can ratchet down chemical components and addictive qualities that 
are added to tobacco to increase the addiction.
  Under this bill, the FDA can reduce carcinogens such as tobacco-
specific nitrosamines. Some Americans may still smoke, but the products 
they will smoke will be less likely to give them lung cancer. I think 
that is a good thing, and I hope you would agree with me.
  It is time to close the decades-long loophole that has allowed 
tobacco to become the one product that is sold and advertised without 
any government oversight--without any government oversight. Think about 
that. Food is regulated, consumer products are regulated, medicine and 
medical devices are regulated, products designed to save lives are 
regulated. Yet tobacco companies sell products that, when used as 
directed, No. 1, addict people; No. 2, make them sick; and, No. 3, in 
some cases, kill them. So if there is one industry that deserves the 
strictest scrutiny of the Federal Government, it is in fact tobacco.
  So I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation. I 
know it is difficult, but I am one who has participated in something 
that the American Cancer Society started called C-Change. This is where 
the cancer society has brought together some 65 groups--advocates, 
individuals, providers, government officials--to deal with cancer and 
what causes cancer. Madam President, the one constant through all the 
discussions, the one thing the physicians and the scientific community 
were the strongest on is that tobacco causes cancer, and that is just 
an inescapable fact. This bill deals with it. It provides regulation, 
it allows for the ratcheting down of addictive components, it allows 
for the control of chemicals that go into tobacco products, and it 
will, in fact, save lives.
  I thank the Chair, and I yield the floor.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DeMINT. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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